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WASHINGTON -- It's cleanup on Aisle 6 at the Biden White House again. In an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on Tuesday, President Biden backtracked on his warning a few days earlier that the world faced the "prospect of Armageddon" for the first time since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis -- declaring, "I don't think [Vladimir Putin] will" use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
Biden said something very different at a Democratic Party fundraiser last week. "We've got a guy I know fairly well; his name is Vladimir Putin," Biden declared. "He is not joking when he talks about the potential use of tactical and nuclear weapons, or biological or chemical weapons, because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming. It's part of Russian doctrine that they will not – they will not -- if the motherland is threatened, they'll use whatever force they need, including nuclear weapons."
"I don't think there's any such thing as an ability to easily [use] a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon," Biden continued.
That's not all. Earlier in his address, Biden said: "First time since the Cuban Missile Crisis, we have a direct threat of the use of the nuclear weapon if, in fact, things continue down the path they've been going. That's -- that's a different deal. That's a different deal. And, you know, we're trying to figure out: What -- what is Putin's off-ramp? Where – where does he get off? Where does he find a way out? Where does he find himself in a position that he does not only lose face, but lose significant power within Russia? So I guess what I'm saying is that we have to keep the Senate."
You did not misread that last sentence. Biden seamlessly transitioned from discussing the threat of nuclear war into a pitch for Democratic control of the Senate. The president of the United States should never just blurt out random thoughts about nuclear war -- especially not at a partisan fundraiser. Nuclear deterrence is serious business. If Biden wanted to publicly address this issue, he should have gathered his national security team, thought through what U.S. declaratory policy should be in the face of Putin's threats, chosen his exact words carefully and deliberately, and delivered them in an appropriate forum. But that is not what Biden did. It is one of the most irresponsible things he has done as president.
Ask yourself: Why is Putin rattling his nuclear saber? Because he believes he can affect Biden's behavior by doing so. Putin knows American weaponry has turned the tide of the war against him, making his complete defeat in Ukraine a real possibility. By threatening such a global conflagration, Putin is playing on Biden's anxieties to coerce the president into doing less for Ukraine. He is trying to scare the White House into withholding advanced weaponry.